


Ashara's Lesson

by Stareyed



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genre: Gen, Sith lessons, Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-30
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:38:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stareyed/pseuds/Stareyed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A companion piece to "Xalek's Lesson", this is a rendering of a particular lesson shared between the Sith Master and his other apprentice. Feels may be involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ashara's Lesson

**Imperial Reclamation Service Headquarters**

**Dromund Kaas  
**

"....and no, I will _not_ increase your budget by fifteen percent in the next Standard year, Archaeologist-General. I appreciate the work you do, but the Empire is at _war_ \- and while that remains the case, everything outside the military is of distinctly secondary priority. I've already cut the Administration budget twice and foregone my own tithes and incomes - we'll all have to do our parts, and yours is to forego the usual budgetary increases. Understood, Archaeologist-General?"

On the screen, the portly face of the human whom Darth Imperius had been speaking to jerked up and down in a gesture that could be called "agreement" by the charitable. "Further, the time and place to approach me with these requests _is in private_ \- the next time you pull that stunt on me at a staff meeting to undermine my authority, I'll use the Force to roast you alive in a pan of your own fat! Am I clear?" Paling, the human nodded again. "I didn't quite hear you, Archaeologist-General. I asked, _'Is that clear?'_!" Nodding yet again, Archaeologist-General Tynell mumbled something the Sith chose to take as an assent and disconnected. In the sudden dimness of the large chamber, Darth Imperius shook his head and sighed. "Some people just aren't cut out for this."

Raising an eyebrow, the Togruta woman off to one side sought clarification. "Cut out for what, Master?" "This, Ashara. This, _this_...stress, this war, the burdens of leading. Some people are happiest when provided a formula to work to and help in working to it, and simply want to leave direction to others."

Ashara Zavros - for it was she, the decidedly irregular Apprentice to a borderline-renegade Sith Lord - looked shocked. "That isn't at all right! Everyone deserves the freedom to do as they choose - it what the Jedi Order protects!" Raising an eyebrow, Imperius decided to take up the line she had offered him. "Absurd. Would you place a chunk of limestone into a pressure chamber? It would only crumble into dust. Who uses the weak to protect the strong? The strong must lead and protect the weak, the wise must guide and aid the foolish....even if the foolish and weak would reject their leadership. The Jedi precept of service at all times is a recipe to chain yourself to the worst among their society, for it makes them predictable and pre-commits them to the aid even of those their instincts tell them to shun."

Darth Imperius took a few steps away from the holoterminal and beckoned out one window, speaking all the while. "Most people are not meant for leadership, Ashara. They have little wisdom, less strength and no desire to forge their own path out of the wilderness. Strong leadership protects those people - whether they think they need protecting or not. Wise leadership guides them to the fulfillment of their potential - even if they disagree about the path to get there. Look at the absurd, asinine political missions that Jedi are routinely sent on, even at the height of a war! Is a Jedi not better used to defend the Republic than mediate some routine negotiations, because one party to them can bribe a senior Senator into making a "request"?" Seeing his apprentice stir restlessly, Imperius flicked his fingers in her direction. "Speak your mind, Ashara."

"Is the Sith way any better? A thousand arrogant, petty tyrants pulling in different directions all at once - there's little wonder why the Sith are losing this war!" Impressed with her courage to say such things here of all places, Imperius waited. "Those negotiations could free up a million soldiers for the front, or get critical materials moved to shipyards in good time - combat is not the only way the strong can serve."

Keeping his face carefully neutral, Imperius countered, "Yet you cannot deny that the corruption in the Republic is so pervasive that many Jedi truly _are_ being wasted...because they indiscriminately place themselves at the service of the Senate." "Of course I can't. What the Jedi need to bring in is _choice_ , give themselves the ability to say 'No' to outrageous requests....." Unwilling to give voice to where her train of thought led, Ashara closed her mouth abruptly, only to find her Master more than willing to take it up in her place.

"...much as I just did with Archaeologist-General Tynell? _Think_ , Ashara - with the Empire's back to the wall, he wanted to divert military funding into more administrative staff for the Reclamation Service. Is that wisdom? Before you are ready to become a true Lord of the Sith, you must embrace choice, my apprentice. What kind of Sith Lord will you _choose_ to become?" After a moment, Ashara answered. "Wise, of course. Benevolent, I hope - and merciful." Her master smiled - the spontaneous, genuine smiles that were all too rare since he had ascended to his present rank. "Then, that is the kind of Sith Lord you should be, _now_ , so that it comes naturally to you when you have finished your apprenticeship. Which means that the next time I make such an outlandish threat in front of you, you'll....." Smiling, Ashara bowed slightly before replying. "I'll wait until you're in private, and then tell you that my sabers will always stand for what I believe to be right, even if it's against you." Her master clasped her shoulder and nodded. "Indeed - the day that you have the wisdom to know when I'm doing the wrong thing, the courage to actually stand against me, and the skill to make it stick.....that is the day that your apprenticeship will be complete." His face softening with affection, he concluded, "And no-one will be prouder than I, my apprentice."

The pair started toward the door leading to the rest of the complex, then Ashara paused and turned to face her Master. "That was just a test, wasn't it Master?" Lost in thought, Imperius took a moment to reply. "No, not entirely. The truth is that Tynell's defiance couldn't stand. Would I have made such a graphic threat if you weren't there? Of course not - I'd have simply warned him that the next time he did that, he should also clean out his desk." Spurred on by his response - for she had always seen him as a pedagogical Master and Lord, not the harsh tyrant he'd clearly played up for her benefit earlier, Ashara followed up her thoughts. "You spend so much time and effort talking to me, about the kind of person - the kind of Jedi, or Sith, I will be when you've finished my training. And I appreciate it, Master - the consideration you've shown me, the choices you've always given me. But I've never asked, or even wondered before now: what kind of Sith did _you_ want to be?" When Cathan was slow to respond, she thought a moment and then ventured further: "What kind of life did you want for yourself? You speak so much of choice, all the time, to me and Xalek and everyone else - it's something very important to you. What would your choices have been?"

For a moment, her Master looked at her impassively, then turned to face one of the statues around the room's edge and appeared to get lost in thought, and Ashara - as she so often did - lost patience. "You said you'd always be honest with me, so _answer me_. What kind of - " Holding up his hand without facing her, her Master interrupted. "I heard you, Ashara."

"Then why won't you answer?" Pausing for a moment and once agains receiving no answer, Ashara slumped a little. "Fine. Be like - " Once again, she was interrupted. "I would that there was only truth between us, but I don't have an answer for you, Ashara. I've never had the chance to think about what I wanted to be. When I was a child, a little boy playing little-boy games, I probably had the typical little-boy dreams of being a warrior, or an architect, or a leader of men....before the Empire came to my homeworld and took my freedom, my family and my future. Since then..." Cathan folded gracefully onto the floor, his robes and cape pooling around him. Only the most alert of observers could have seen the slight tremble, quickly suppressed, that indicated that the movement wasn't quite voluntary.

"Since then....I'd have settled for 'Not a slave'. Does that answer your question?" He turned his face, at last, toward his informal apprentice, utterly without expression....and to her view, his eyes were as empty as two pieces of green glass, holding enough pain, loss and loneliness that she quickly turned her own eyes away, stunned by the depth of feeling that her normally-cold master was betraying to her.

Without ever quite intending to, Ashara Zavros, sometime Jedi Padawan and irregular Sith Apprentice, had drawn blood in a sense she'd never thought possible. She couldn't quite tell whether she should consider it a victory, a defeat or something else, but she knew that an one-way barrier in their relationship had just been crossed. Whatever she and her Master became, neither would ever see the other with the same eyes again.

As she left, her Master observed her closely. Showing the still-naive girl so much truth at once was a gamble, but Darth Imperius - who had been born "Cathan" on a world ignorant of space travel and had experienced a happy childhood and a mother's unselfish love which provided comfort and strength when needed, even half a lifetime later - thought that it would pay off. The girl was bright, but she'd been growing reckless, even arrogant of late - a tendency that he had observed in her repeatedly in the past, and one that she needed to be broken of, lest she become the kind of careless, tyrannical Sith she so loudly deplored. Teaching her to be more careful in her requests would help her gain wisdom....and the results of the lessons would inure her to the strength she would need to survive the life that lay ahead of her - not merely physically, but with her compassion and empathy intact. The price had been high - the angle she had chosen to investigate had been one that had forced Cathan to dredge up his most painful memories for her inspection, and he would be feeling tender for days over it - but if it had the intended effect, it would be worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> So yes, here it is - Ashara's Lesson. Lessons within lessons, wheels within wheels - even the LS! Inquisitor is no simple person or straightforward teacher, I always thought. And yes, even a LS! Inquisitor always struck me as a manipulative bastard, albeit with much more benevolent intentions than most Sith - so that's the pattern his teaching has taken. He doesn't dole out the lessons - he makes his students do the thinking, on the logic that this better equips them to meet the challenges ahead of them.
> 
> And before anyone asks, yes - he was deliberately baiting her into an argument with his line about the strong/weak and wise/foolish. The Sith Code is about freedom, not rulership.
> 
> As always, feedback is highly welcome.


End file.
